Senior Regional Engineer - Metallurgical at Sappi

Sappi Southern Africa requires a Senior Regional Engineer - Metallurgical to provide professional specialist engineering support services to the maintenance and project engineering departments within Sappi Southern Africa in the fields of Asset Preservation, Corrosion Monitoring and Prevention, Pressure Vessel and Capital Equipment condition assessment and repair, Water Quality Management, Metallurgical Analysis and Welding practises.

This role reports into the General Manager: Engineering.

The main responsibilities of this job are: 

• Provide specialist engineering support to all Mills that adds value to the business as a proven and reliable centralised technical resource in support of production efficiency.
• Provide objective and specialised engineering support regarding all input to capital projects, problem resolution and change management procedures.
• Review, develop and implement all Metallurgical Engineering best practices and standards.
• Develop and coordinate long term asset preservation programs for principal capital equipment, pressurised systems, electrical control equipment and infrastructure.
• Advise, develop and implement improved plant inspection and condition monitoring techniques for plant reliability and safety and to prevent equipment failure and unplanned downtime.
• Review, monitor and approve regional contracts for the water quality management and corrosion prevention in Mill boiler, steam, condensate and cooling water systems.
• Coordinate and conduct audits to compare performance of related suppliers against relevant industry KPI’s.
• Conduct vendor QA system assessments of key engineering suppliers and identify and introduce new sources of maintenance support resources.
• Manage QA/QC within discipline on major equipment fabrication work for Capital projects and Mill RJ activities.
• Manage major Mill equipment repairs and overhauls on behalf of Mill maintenance personnel with regards to technical aspects, QA and expediting.
• Undertake reverse engineering of components regarding replacement spares, import substitutions and upgrades to improve equipment reliability and service life, and to reduce maintenance costs.
• Coordinate all necessary chemical analysis and mechanical testing of materials and corrosion products etc.
• Undertake metallurgical laboratory work for upper system root cause failure analysis.
• Provide technical input in support of major insurance claims, covering potential loss and related damage to primary capital equipment.

The ideal candidate should have:

• NQF 6 BSC/B.Eng Degree in Metallurgy 
• Additional Welding and Corrosion qualification would be advantageous. 
• Registered as a Professional Engineer
• A minimum of eight (8) years’ experience in Engineering machine shop and welding process equipment and capabilities as well as Material Laboratory Equipment’s, types of tests, inspection and measuring equipment is essential.
• A minimum of eight (8) years’ experience in pulping processes.
• A minimum of ten (10) years’ experience in Wood supply systems, Woodyard and chipping operations, Chemical supply systems for the various pulping systems
• A minimum of five (5) years’ experience in environmental impacts of chemical systems